Buraka Som Sistema

Welcome to the latest edition of Pitchfork's Guest List. Each week, we ask one of our favorite artists to fill us in on what they've been up to lately: which tracks they can't stop spinning, what books they can't put down, and what new bands they've caught on tour. This week we talk to kuduro masters Buraka Som Sistema, who discuss meeting Neneh Cherry, which Paul Simon song is everyone's dad's favorite, and stuff white people like.

Favorite New Songs of the Past Year

Zomby: "Strange Fruit".

Kanye West: "Paranoid".My favorite song of the album [808s and Heartbreak], but we all like the whole album.

Rusko: "Jahova".That's cool as well.

DJ Marfox: "Drift Furioso".There's this cool producer, this little kid producer from Lisbon...I think he's got a full album to download on some strange hi5 page.

Recently we've picked up some old Prodigy stuff, and we've been playing "Breathe" in our set.

There's the cheesiest R&B song in the world, which I love. No one else likes it, but it's Cassie: "Me and U".

And DJ Du Marcel is another producer. He makes the most banging dance floor tracks from Angola.

Favorite Song Ever

Paul Simon: "You Can Call Me Al".I think it was everyone's father's favorite song, and they spoke about with such enthusiasm that it just became our favorite song as well. I like to think about music in cycles, and this was a good period in music, like, all that African influence on the whole Graceland album and everything. I think you can see that that's coming back now, and that's cool. So, this is probably the biggest hit of all that period, so we like it.

Favorite Music Video

Beyoncé: "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)".I just want to say Beyoncé: "Single Ladies", because there's two good things to see: You can either watch the video and listen to the music and it's cool, or you can just take the sound out of your TV and just watch Beyoncé. It's great when you have two or three options, two or three ways to watch a movie.

My Dream Collaboration

Neneh Cherry.You know "Buffalo Stance", right? [sings] I just remember her old stuff. She had, obviously, "Seven Seconds" with Youssou N'Dour. And "Buffalo Stance", her biggest hit. And then I think she did a cover of... [James Brown's "It's a Man's Man's] Man's World", a remake [called "Woman"]. That was really big as well.

And that's why we decided to do this, 'cause we met her in Copenhagen, and everybody was a little bit drunk but it was fun, just talking about music and stuff. I think in a way she was kind of the person who, before everyone else, maybe during the 1980s and still doing it in the 90s with "Seven Seconds", she was kind of bringing two worlds together, like the pop music world from major cities like New York, and doing something at the same time with stranger countries, in Africa and stuff like that, working with Youssou N'Dour and all that. So I think she was a little bit visionary on that issue. Pre-M.I.A., and she was wearing funny clothes as well.

First Record I Bought For Myself

MC Hammer: "U Can't Touch This". But no one had money to buy it, so at least my father paid for my copy, and DJ Riot's father also paid for his copy.

Favorite Record Shop

iTunes Store. Hey I'm being honest, I could make it sound really interesting, but I'm just being honest.

Pitchfork: What's the last thing you got on iTunes?

Flying Lotus.

Favorite Piece of Musical Equipment

MacBook Pro.

Pitchfork: Apple's gonna like you. [laughs]

Well, yeah. Trying to get a sponsorship! I'm not being fair: they gave us the computer... but that's not why I'm answering the question like this.

Last Great Film I Saw

The Wrestler.

Last Great Book I Read

Christian Lander: Stuff White People Like.

We found this hilarious book in Australia, [group member] Kalaf [Ângelo] found it, it's called Stuff White People Like. It's really cool. Coffee's the number one. Coffee, Wes Anderson movies... Asian chicks. [laughs]

Pitchfork: My brother just went to a Stuff White People Like book signing; he said it was hilarious.

Yeah? What happened?

Pitchfork: He's considering moving to Portland, Ore., which is one of the things that white people like, and Lander told my brother he would never fit in, but he signed his book anyway.

Yeah, it's that and New York, right? Every white person lives in New York for three months.

Favorite City to Play

Lisbon, Portugal.

Pitchfork: That's your hometown, right?

Yeah. Because we're out very much, when we go back, it always feels really, really good to perform a show where-- 'cause I mean, we're a band that doesn't speak a worldwide language. So even if everyone is having fun at our shows, I think that there's always like 15% of our communication lost in translation in all our shows. Even in other cities in Portugal, even in Porto, which is the second biggest city in Portugal, there's less understanding of what we do than Lisbon. The whole concept of the band was linked with what happens in Lisbon...

My Dream Merch Table

Vodka Red Bull bazookas.It's like a water gun, but it's a water bazooka; we just bought one yesterday, it's so cool. A really big bazooka that you take on stage and you just get everyone wet, even though it's winter, and everyone's really cold. But instead of water, we'd put vodka Red Bull, and get everyone drunk with big bazookas.

One Popular Band That Should Drop Off the Earth

Tokio Hotel.I dunno, it's just annoying, 'cause the whole thing is fabricated. It's fake, it's bullshit. The whole band and the whole label and everyone is just taking a piss on mankind. It's just their way of saying "You're all idiots, we fabricate stuff for you to buy, to spend your money," and it's disrespectful to the human race.

One Obscure Band I Think Should Be More Popular

In terms of bands, not really like electronic music stuff, I think that The Death Set should be more popular.

Pitchfork: Is there some other kind of musician or DJ that you think as well?

Well, not really. There are loads of stuff, I could [give you] a 20-name list, but I don't know. It also depends on what is popular and what's not popular.

Strangest Display of Affection I've Ever Gotten From a Fan

Everyone in the band has experienced this in some way-- when people congratulate you and try to shake your hand in the bathroom, while you're taking a piss, like, after the show. 'Cause you were just playing for an hour, hour and a half, so you have to go to the bathroom and there's no bathroom backstage, you need to use the regular one, and everyone tries to shake your hand while they're pissing.

Best Purchase of the Past Year

Water Bazooka.

Pitchfork: Have you used it yet?

No! [laughs] We've been using water guns in all our shows-- we just did in Australia, 'cause it was really hot, we just decided to buy all these water guns, and just get to a specific point in the show when we just started getting everyone wet, and that was something fantastic. Almost enough wet to get like a Miss Wet T-shirt Contest. [laughs]

Best Thing I Did in the Past Year

Swimming with dolphins and seals and fishing around Melbourne. We had the freshest sashimi ever, which was like, just fishing a fish and then just opening it up and eating it with soy sauce, right there. It's a place, like, one hour outside of Melbourne, called Queen's Cliffs. They just did this tour, like, Swim All Dolphins, I don't know, it's got a strange name. Sea All Dolphin Swims. You hang from ropes, from the back of the boat, and you've got your snorkeling equipment. First you need to see dolphins, obviously, and then when you see them, the boat chases them for a while, and tries to overrun them, so they cross under you while you're hanging on a rope on the back of the boat. So it's like, you're actually like in the water with them, and they're swimming parallel to you, at the same speed.

Favorite Venue:

Fabric in London.We've played so many shows in shitty places, and the thing that we miss the most is the power of the PA system. If we're playing and you don't have any bass in the room, in the venue, that just destroys, like, 30% of what we're doing, so it's kind of stupid. So definitely I think one place that everyone agreed that it was really comfortable to play regarding this is Fabric in London.

Favorite TV Show at the Moment

"Born Survivor".It's on Discovery Channel. It's this Australian dude-- it's Australian right?-- we're not sure if it's Australian. It might be British. But they just throw him in the jungle, in the middle of Cambodia, and he has like, some sort of a task to do. It's on Discovery Channel.

Favorite Radio Program:

Sinden.I always try and listen to Sinden's show online, at Kiss FM. I think he plays a lot of really interesting things.

My Ringtone

I just do ringtones that come with phones; I never bought a ringtone. Well, once I bought a Buraka ringtone, because I wanted to see what they sounded like, but I just use whatever comes on the phone.